Last week, three men were stabbed by a white supremacist–two of them died–defending two Muslim girls in Portland. Now, a Portland Republican party official says the GOP should hire paramilitary militia fringe groups for security at their public events. Following a tense situation involving protesters in the Texas legislature, a GOP representative suggested putting a bullet in the head of a Democratic lawmaker. About a week ago, a Republican nominee for Congress in Montana body slammed a reporter, and went on the win the special election for the open seat. The Republican budget proposal was released last week, and the cuts for social programs to help the poor are staggering. The Republican led health care bill will throw some 23 million people off of their health insurance over the coming decade, and some estimates say another 30 million children will lose insurance coverage because of draconian cuts to existing programs.

I watch these things unfold from my perch in a very red (yet deeply impoverished) county in a very red (yet fiscally insecure) state. And I wonder how things came to be like this. When did money and the accumulation of wealth become the only goal worth casting and achieving? When did power for the sake of power alone become the American ideal?

Where is the party that spoke of “compassionate conservatism”? Where is the party of the Bushes and Reagan and Eisenhower? Where is the party that I used to belong to? George H.W. Bush’s famous “thousand points of light” have become nothing but the ashes of a once noble ideal. Reagan’s “morning in America” has slipped into a moonless midnight of isolationism and insecurity. George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” has taken a sharp turn to compassion for business and the wealthy only.

After the GOP approved “Citizens United” ruling in the Supreme Court, businesses are considered “people” that can use money as speech to propagate their pro-business agendas to the detriment of the poor, the sick, the disadvantaged and the environment.

Where Richard Nixon signed landmark environmental legislation into law, the current GOP dominated government is dismantling as much as they possibly can of the regulations that have helped clean and rehabilitate an ailing environment. In the name of saving money for some, they are turning their backs in education for all, health care for all, science and medical research….the list goes on. They have re-written the social contract to be little more than a manifesto for selfishness and greed.

We are in the middle of the process of losing allies who have been at our side since the days of our own inception as a nation (France), allies who have fought with us against fascism (England) and allies that stood beside us as we faced down the Soviet threat of the 20th century (Germany).

We have a (purported) Republican leader who praises authoritarian criminals like Duterte, Erdogan, and Putin, and who may have been compromised by alleged connections to Russian powers.

Where is the party of Eisenhower, the man who was the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe when the security of the entire world was threatened by violent fascism, who worked with forces of the free world and the armies in exile of occupied nations to throw back authoritarian rule in favor of democracy and freedom, at least for the West? Where is the modern equal to Eisenhower who warned of the dangers of a growing threat from the military-industrial complex?

Where is the party of Reagan, the charismatic former actor turned politician who challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” that separated a city, but more than that, symbolized the separation of humanity between free people and oppressed? Now, we have a president who is bent on building a wall instead of tearing one down.

Now, instead of ideals of freedom and human dignity and equality and the pursuit of happiness, there is the pursuit of wealth for a few and grasping at the wind for so many more. Because we value money more than a vital global ecosystem, we turn our backs on multinational agreements to protect the atmosphere from further degradation. We listen to business leaders over scientists because profit is more precious than people, more precious than life.

History tells us over and over that oppressed people will not remain oppressed, that authoritarian tyranny will not be tolerated forever. And for people of a Christian faith, the call to aid the poor and those without voice is repeated over and over and over throughout the scripture. Many so-called conservatives claim a Christian faith, and even long for a so-called “Christian nation,” all the while turning their backs on their God-given tasks of caring for the environment and responsibilities to the less fortunate.

Maybe some day, we will see that money is no more than a means to an end, that it is pointless without a purpose. Maybe we will reach a point where politics takes its place to serve human needs, not only the human wants of a few.

There is excess and wrong-doing at all points of the political spectrum to be sure. But the greed and violent threats from the right are unnerving. We must be better than this if we are to survive as a people. Let there be liberty and justice for all, but in the sense of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms like freedom from want and fear, and in the sense of true biblical justice, as the relief of the poor and needy. These should be the American hallmark, maintaining the beacon of liberty, with amity toward our friends and allies and vigilance against oppression, yet tempered with a readiness, a willingness, even an eagerness to extend the olive branch of peace.

laurel falls

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.” ― Louis L’Amour

There is so much to see, to learn, to experience in this infinite universe: things about life, the world, people, nature--how they work and how we deal with them. That's what I like to observe, to think about, and to share with you. Life is a journey of discovery. Enjoy the scenery.